The present invention generally pertains to biometric security systems. More specifically, the present invention pertains to biometric security systems that provide an enhanced defense against unlawful hackers and system attackers.
Within a typical biometric security system, there are at least two operations, enrollment and authentication. The operation of enrollment encompasses the original sampling of a person's biometric information, and the creation and storage of a match template (a.k.a., an enrollment template) that is a data representation of the original sampling. The operation of authentication includes an invocation of a biometric sample for the identification or verification of a system user through comparison of a data representation of the biometric sample with one or more stored match templates.
Biometric information is, by nature, reasonably public knowledge. A person's biometric data is often casually left behind or is easily seen and captured. This is true for all forms of biometric data including, but not limited to, fingerprints, iris features, facial features, and voice information. As an example, consider two friends meeting. The one friend recognizes the other by their face and other visible key characteristics. That information is public knowledge. However, a photo of that same person ‘is’ not that person. This issue similarly applies, electronically, to computer-based biometric authentication wherein a copy of authorized biometric information is susceptible to being submitted as a representation of the corresponding original information. In the context of biometric security applications, what is important, what enables a secure authentication, is a unique and trusted invocation of an authorized biometric.
Numerous known biometric security systems are susceptible to being duped because the data representation of the biometric samples received from the system operator during enrollment and the operation of authentication are in substantially the same format as stored match templates. Accordingly, an individual in possession of a copy of an authorized match template (i.e., obtained through unauthorized database penetration) can substitute the copy for authorized biometric information during the operation of authentication to gain unauthorized access. This is possible because the stolen match template is directly associated with an authorized match template in the database.
For the described typical system, it becomes essential to prevent an authorized match template from being replicated and replayed. Electronic replay has proven to be a key area of concern.